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The Art and Picture Collections at Mid-Manhattan Library are pleased to present two exhibitions of sculptures by artist Heather Dewey-Hagborg. In Stranger Visions Dewey-Hagborg creates portrait sculptures from analyses of genetic material collected in public places. Working with the traces strangers unwittingly leave behind, Dewey-Hagborg calls attention to the impulse toward genetic determinism and the potential for a culture of genetic surveillance.

I want to be as surprised by my work as anyone else. For me, the joy in creating is that the creation takes on a life of its own. I am interested in exploring the intersection between art and life, between nature and artifice.

Heather Dewey-Hagborg is an information artist who is interested in exploring art as research and public inquiry. Traversing media ranging from algorithms to DNA, her work seeks to question fundamental assumptions underpinning perceptions of human nature, technology and the environment. Examining culture through the lens of information, Heather creates situations and objects embodying concepts, probes for reflection and discussion.

Dewey-Hagborg has shown work internationally at events and venues including the Poland Mediations Bienniale, Jaaga art and technology center in Bangalore, and the Monitor Digital Festival in Guadalajara. She has exhibited nationally at PS1 Moma, the New Museum, Eyebeam, Clocktower Gallery, 92Y Tribeca, Issue Project Room, and Splatterpool in New York City, Grounds for Sculpture in New Jersey, and CEPA Gallery in Buffalo. In addition to her individual work she has collaborated with the collective Future Archaeology and with video artist Adriana Varella. Her work has been featured in print in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, the Times of London, Il Sole 24 Ore, Science Magazine, and Time Out New York, on television on the BBC World Service, ZDF in Germany, CNN, Dan Rather Reports and Fuji Television in Japan, on the radio on Public Radio's Studio 360, and CBS News, and online in the New York Times Magazine, TED, the Guardian,Reuters, the New York Post, NPR, the Wall Street Journal, Wired, Smithsonian, Le Monde, Haaretz, The Creators Project, Art Ukraine, Designboom, Capital New York, Artlog, Fast Company, The Verge, Motherboard, the Boston Globe, Fast Company, Huffington Post, Gizmodo and the Daily Beast, among many others. Heather has received grants or residency awards from Eyebeam, MOMA PS1, Clocktower Gallery, Jaaga, I-Park, Sculpture Space, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, CEPA Gallery, the Nathan Cummings Foundation, and the National Science Foundation. Heather has a BA in Information Arts from Bennington College and a Masters degree from the Interactive Telecommunications Program at Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. She is currently a PhD student in Electronic Arts at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.